[RP TownTalk] Thank you Riverdale Park, for the 4th of July celebration!

[Don Lynch]

On behalf of the Riverdale Park Arts Council, Melissa and I would like 
to thank everyone who participated in Riverdale Park’s Celebration of 
the 4th of July.

When I say participated, I mean everyone who helped put on the event, 
but also everyone who came out to enjoy the music, the food (the 
proceeds from, supported our volunteer fire department and we all know 
how important that is!), the fire department's display of equipment and 
fire safety education, and to come together as a genuine hometown 
gathering of friends and neighbors.

We were very happy to see some of our council members along with Mayor 
Vernon Archer come out and enjoy the perfect weather with the rest of us.

It has been too many years since this town has had such a celebration.

On Memorial Day, we asked town officials what was planned for the 4th of 
July. The response was “nothing was planned”.

Well, we didn’t like that answer and so we set out to change that.

We got the support from the Riverdale Park Arts Council and then 
approached the town council with the idea and it just took off from there.

Our volunteer fire department eagerly joined in. Jay and Nova Johns were 
a force to be reckoned with when it came to putting on this event. The 
two of them turned on the afterburners and made this event complete.

Our chief of police, Teresa Chambers, made a wonderful speech. For those 
of you who didn’t come out, you missed an extraordinarily inspirational 
speech after which one of the firemen asked if I had recorded it because 
he wanted a copy to use for other occasions.

We had a small amount of money to bring in some very talented musicians 
and the town was able to hear Don Walters perform and later Doug Everton 
and the Wayward Street band. Both were exceptional and very 
entertaining. And they loved performing here so much they asked to be 
included in future events!

To our delight, Liz Lohr and Jimmy Barnett, both long time Riverdale 
Park citizens, came out and performed, for the fun of it. And to top it 
off, we had Jeff Reynolds, an accomplished musician; well known 
throughout the Washington, DC area, sit in with Liz and Jimmy. A trio of 
WAMA Award winning talent underneath our bridge at town center!

We also would like to thank Tony and Ann Fotos for bringing out a 
stunning classic car for everyone to enjoy.

It was hard work for the few of us, since it wasn’t in the town budget 
for assistance, but we pulled it off and next year we believe this event 
will be even bigger and is here to stay and grow and become one of the 
town’s most important celebrations.

Melissa and I really enjoy living in this town and we look forward to 
many years of events such as this.

Again, thanks to all who participated.

Don Lynch